The 1921 Census
In 1921 the census officer instituted a number of changes to census practice in the New Territories, to reflect perceived shortcomings in 1911. The most significant was the employment of large numbers of enumerators in each district (8 head enumerators and 50 enumerators in Northern District, and 8 head enumerators and 11 enumerators in Southern District - the local police undertook the enumeration in the "outlying islands and inaccessible fishing villages"), all employed from among the "better educated" of the local New Territories population. These enumerators did their work village by village, being preceded the previous day by policemen who explained what was to be done, and why. In each district a police officer was seconded to oversee the whole operation. The census officer noted that this system was less arduous than that used in 1911, and "proved very successful." The work done "interested the better educated inhabitants," and was done "expeditiously," "very thoroughly," and "carefully." The enumeration was completed in three weeks starting from March 24th. The census officer also noted that the weather was less hot and rainy than during the 1911 enumeration period.
In 1921 the enumerators took care to adjust from Chinese to European age-reckoning, which had not been done in 1911, thus leading to some of the 1911 reported ages being marginally inaccurate. This factor can be detected in some quirks of the 1911 figures.
The census schedule was simplified, with the questions relating to language, religion, infirmities and industry being dropped. The census officer commented adversely on the omission of the "Industry in which Employed" question, as he felt this left the "Occupation" question "extremely laborious" to draw up, so that it was often dealt with "without sufficient preciseness." The problems arising from the "Occupation" tables in the two censuses will be discussed further below.
As in 1911, the raw figures provided by the enumerators were processed by tabulators in headquarters before finalisation.
The inadequacies of the 1911 figures for the New Territories floating population were acknowledged, and an attempt was made to provide better statistics. The census office, however, noted that the figures were still "not so satisfactory", because of the "impossibility" of noting all